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Nationally acclaimed poet, photographer, filmmaker, and novelist James
Baker Hall has long been regarded as one of Kentucky’s most profound artists.
Hall’s growing body of work is an essential part of Kentucky’s literary
tradition, and yet his poetry in particular transcends the borders of the
Commonwealth.
The Total Light Process collects poems spanning Hall’s celebrated career as well as new poems that have never before been published. The subjects of Hall’s poems range from humorous and revealing portraits of his fellow writers and friends Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, and Gurney Norman, to the traumatic experience of his mother’s suicide when he was eight years old, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the tragic murder of Matthew Shepherd.
James Baker Hall, the former Kentucky Poet Laureate and
a native of Kentucky, has taught creative writing at the University of Kentucky
since 1973. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in
creative writing at Stanford. Hall is the author of five volumes of poetry, two
novels, and four collections of photography. His works include Praeder’s
Letters, Yates Paul, His Grand
Flights, His Tootings, and Tobacco
Harvest.
See other books in the series Kentucky
Voices.
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| Reviews:"Demonstrates
clearly why James Baker Hall deserves to be considered one of the region's
finest poets."-- Appalachian Heritage
"The
spirits of James Wright and William Stafford live in the work of James Baker
Hall."--
Bloomsbury Review
"Hall is a serious poet and a comic poet in almost the same breath. . . .
Through six books, across 40 years, this collection charts the brilliant
progress of one of Kentucky's signature poets."--Louisville
Courier-Journal
"The Total Light Process finds Hall marrying new work with older poems that
mesh to produce a broad canvas filled with varying perspectives that demonstrate
how his work has evolved over years of travel, writing and
remembering."-- Lexington Herald-Leader
“What is most impressive about the trajectory of Jim Hall’s writing over the
past thirty or so years is that his style continues to evolve, while retaining
its thematic overlap. Escaping consistency and predictability are two of Hall’s
most appealing traits as a writer and an artist.”--Richard Taylor
"Graces us with Hall's distinct voice and eye for the uniqueness of what
surrounds us all."--Chevy Chaser
"We in Kentucky should be pleased to have another opportunity to view Hall's
poetic genius across a wide spectrum of three decades of his creative
composition in contemporary verse."--Bowling Green (KY) Daily News
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